Purchasing Green Products as a Means of Expressing Consumers’ Uniqueness: Empirical Evidence from Peru and Bangladesh

Abstract

Does consumers’ consumption of green products represent a method of satisfying their need for uniqueness? Does it enhance their self-image? In order to answer these questions, the present study attempts to understand how personal-level factors (such as the need for uniqueness) and product-level factors (such as self-expressive benefits) drive customers to go green. Survey-based data were collected from 247 customers in Bangladesh and 132 customers in Peru during 2017–2018. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results of this study highlight the important role played by the need for uniqueness as a major driver of green behavior among customers in both countries. Furthermore, self-expressive benefits were found to represent another reason on the part of customers in both Peru and Bangladesh for buying green products. This study hence contributes to the current literature by strengthening existing knowledge of the drivers of pro-environmental purchasing behavior in developing countries.